Kimbrough wins NABC title

By Cole McGrath
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, July 8, 2004

Aliquippa's Verquan Kimbrough (8-0, 3 KO) left the Grande Ballroom at the Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort in Chester, W. Va. with a shiny new accessory: the North American Boxing Council American Featherweight Title belt.

Kimbrough, fighting out of trainer Tom Yankello's Ambridge World Class Boxing gym, defeated Ubaldo Olivencia (5-6-2, 4 KO) of Brooklyn, N.Y., by way of an unanimous decision to win the championship.

The fan favorite, Kimbrough set the tone for the fight early with a couple of quick jabs that dictated the pace and flow of the bout.

"Going into the fight, I wanted to put my jab right on his chin, so he could feel what kind of power I had," Kimbrough said. "That's exactly what I did and when I did, I saw his eyes get wide."

Both fighters were cut in the first round by what was deemed an unintentional contact of the heads. For Kimbrough, the cut, which Yankello was able to close quickly, gave him an extra boost of energy.

"Once I saw that blood run down my eye, I got an adrenaline rush," he said. "I thought to myself, 'Wow. Now, I'm in a fight.'"

To get to 126 pounds for this fight, Kimbrough spent two weeks at training camp with Yankello, which allowed him to drop 10 pounds in that time.

"I did it the right way," said Kimbrough, who in the past has cut weight on his own. "The right way was drinking water and eating the right foods. It's about eating what is good, not what taste good."

The new approach paid off in a big way for Kimbrough, who seemed to have much more in reserve than Olivencia when it mattered.

Another Yankello fighter, Monty Meza-Clay (12-0, 7 KO) Meza-Clay of Pittsburgh, won his bout on a technical knockout at 1:46 of the second round when his opponent James Merriweather (5-14) of Toledo, Ohio, was unable to continue and the referee stopped the fight.

Meza-Clay credited his victory to the faith he has not only in himself, but also his trainer Yankello.

"I've been working out," Meza-Clay said. "I've been working so hard, man. I just have so much confidence right now. I have confidence in my game. I have confidence in my trainer. A lot of people don't have confidence in both."

Merriweather tried to keep Meza-Clay, the West Virginia State Lightweight Champion, away with his jab the whole fight. Meza-Clay's quick moves made his opponent's attempts prove futile, with Meza-Clay walking into his opponent seemingly at will.

"That's the matrix," Meza-Clay said of his speedy style in the ring. "Ali had the rope-a-dope. I have the matrix. Everybody has got their own move."

It was not the first time the two fighters had met during their careers. In Meza-Clay's fifth professional bout, he won a decision against Merriweather in four rounds.

With his latest victory, Meza-Clay thinks he is now ready to take on some longer fights than those he has been fighting recently, saying that he only gets stronger as a fight continues.

"That's when they don't want me," he said. "I'm going to be even more dangerous in the later rounds."

In other action, heavyweight Brian Minto of Butler improved his record to 17-0 with a TKO late in the second round against Kevin Tallon (9-16, 8 KO) of Lawerenceburgh, Ind.

Tallon, a free puncher, was simply outclassed in the fight and Minto, also out of Yankello's Ambridge gym, was able hammer him repeatedly with hard rights from all angles. After a trio of knockdowns in quick succession in the second round, the referee decided Tallon had seen enough of Minto's leather for one evening.

Heavyweight Chris Koval (20-1, 16 KO) of Detroit hand Carlos Bates of Indianapolis his 21st career defeat with a stunning first round TKO.

Female featherweight Cindy Serrano (6-0, 3 KO) of Brooklyn, N.Y. took care of Philadelphia's Wanda Satterwaite (0-5). At only 1:35 in the first round, the referee stopped the bout, giving Serrano a TKO victory.

"Irish" Davey McBride (5-2) of Salem, Ohio needed less than a round to finish off Cleveland's Margaro Senquiz with a TKO in lightweight action.

With a unanimous decision after four rounds, Durrell Richardson of Youngstown, Ohio moved his record to 4-0 against Baltimore's Matt Hill (6-13). It was the first time in Richardson's professional career that he did not register a knockout.

Fox Sports Net will air the fights at 7 p.m. this Saturday.